Raiding Mass Transit and Education Funding

You know, it would be an miracle if I could go a week with out an Arnold sucks and here is why post. It isn't my fault. The man just doesn't stop with the stupid.

Take his proposal to take away mass transit money and use it to pay off debts. Oh yeah, and he is trying to call it a "stabilization" move for transit funding. The proposal is probably DOA in the legislature, but here is what Arnold wishes he could do. It isn't exactly green.

The change to be debated this week in state Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees is part of $1.1 billion worth of money diverted in the governor's budget from the spillover and other sources that would ordinarily pay for transit.

The new beneficiaries do pay for buses, vans, and their maintenance and drivers, but these vehicles transport schoolchildren and the disabled and are traditionally budgeted with education and social services.

To hear the Schwarzenegger administration's budget people explain it, the budget allows for more stable funding for public transit. Although the recent spillover estimate for the 2007-2008 budget year is $617 million, as recently as the 2002-2003, gas sales tax receipts did not grow enough to create any spillover.

Using spillover and other transit funding, the proposed budget puts $627 million into home to school transportation and $144 million into transportation of clients to developmental centers and $340 million to pay debt service on old bonds used mainly for public transit projects.

We do need to stabilize funding for public transportation, but this is not the way to do it. Arnold is attempting to move responsibility for a large portion of transportation funding from the general budget to Prop. 98 funds. That effectively reduces the amount of money available for actual education our students. This is the time to shore up our public transportation system as high gas prices are driving people out of their cars.

The passage of Prop 1A locks down gas tax revenues to transportation funding. It will, as the Schwarzenegger administration points out, put more pressure on the legislature to diverting public transit funding for other needs. It is a very bad habit of our legislature to raid that particular kitty, rather than planning ahead.

We do need a solution to this problem, but Arnold's would do more harm than good.